


Another Rose

by puddleface



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Awkwardness, Drama, F/F, Friendship/Love, Hurt/Comfort, Multi, Other
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-11-18
Updated: 2017-01-03
Packaged: 2018-08-31 16:52:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 8,089
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8586316
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/puddleface/pseuds/puddleface
Summary: A new Rose Quartz is created for the first time in several millennia, but this time for a very specific purpose: to exterminate the terrorist organization known as the Crystal Gems.





	1. Chapter 1

Rose Quartz squinted up at the sterile lights hovering above her. She tried to cover her eyes but the restraints of the operating table prevented her from budging. They were flimsy metal bonds, like sheets of foil to her, but she chose not to rip through them. It seemed like a bad thing to do. She wasn’t entirely sure why. She wasn’t entirely sure of anything.

“Examination complete,” a nasally voice trembled from somewhere to the left. “It’s the real deal. A perfect Rose Quartz.” The voice sounded tired and breathless, cautious in its enthusiasm.

“By the Diamonds, we’ve done it!” another voice squealed, this time from the right. “It was a pleasure collaborating with you, Head Kindergartener. Who knew that building a kindergarten on this passing asteroid and allocating all of its resources to a single cell” — it paused for breath — “would be the key to finally reproducing a perfect Rose Quartz! How serendipitous!”

“After decades of observing this belt, I knew, which is why I proposed this operation in the first place,” the one from the left huffed. She sounded tired. Rose could relate; she was tired too. It was her first time waking up, after all. “Now go input the necessary data and inform Yellow Diamond that the reproduction was a success. I’m going to run the initial tests.”

“Right away!” 

Rose could hear the one on the right scamper off, their footsteps echoing softly along the cavern walls. Then there was mostly silence, aside from the hum of the passing lights. Her eyes started adjusting to them and she could vaguely make out little spherical objects floating around her, their headlights trained on her body. Squinting past them, she could see a black sky peppered with little white specks — stars in the grand cosmos, her artificial mind told her as it began to kick in. In her peripheral the canyons of the kindergarten loomed all around. It all seemed so big and vast, much different from the cozy little hole just a few steps behind her. She wanted to crawl back in.

Rose flinched when the table she had been laying on suddenly lurched forward. The spheres moved aside as she ascended, but they continued to hover around her. When the table was done rotating she tried stepping off, dragging it and its restraints a few steps forward with her. Her way was quickly barred by an alarmed green gem. 

“Halt!” the gem ordered, holding her bulky hands up in front Rose’s face. “Don’t move any further until the post-examination examination is complete.”

“Um, okay,” Rose mumbled before settling back against the table. She shuffled anxiously as the other gem began poking at the holographic screen emanating from her arm. Not knowing what else to do, Rose watched the gem.

Strands of hair fell onto the green gem’s forehead and over her foggy visor as she worked. But despite the unruly mop on her head, the gem carried herself professionally. Her posture was straight as could be, even exaggerated a tad, and it never seemed to falter. Hanging to the side of her flared flat chest were metal limbs, which Rose found curious. More curious were those flying, disembodied fingers of hers typing along the screen. Rose wondered how she was doing that. 

The fingers were caked with spots of dirt as well as what looked like oil. Some of the grime dripped off her fingers and through the holo-screen, disrupting the image slightly. The gem grumbled as she typed harder and faster. From the looks of it, she must have worked hard on Rose’s production. Rose considered thanking her, but decided against it. She was feeling shy.

“Your physical assessment is nearly done with,” the gem said as a new window popped up on her screen. After reading it, she looked up at Rose. “Let’s get on to the questionnaire portion of your post-examination examination, shall we?”

“Okay,” Rose muttered obediently.

“The bits of basic knowledge carved into your gem should assist you here. Try to draw from it. Well then, question number one: Do you know what I am?”

Rose thought hard and somehow came up with an answer. “You’re a… peridot?” she said with only a bit of hesitation.

“Good, but louder. Now, what are you?”

“I’m a… a Rose Quartz!” Rose croaked.

“Hmm, excellent.” 

Rose slouched forward in embarrassment but struggled against her restraints. She shifted, trying to get more comfortable.

The peridot nibbled her lip for a moment then said, “You’ll have to excuse us for the rude awakening, and for the robonoid inspection. You’ve been incubating in your cell for much longer than scheduled and we had to be sure that you weren’t defective. After all, it wouldn’t do to have a defective gem running around the facilities, being a clod and ruining everything.” She cringed.

Rose shrugged as much as her restraints would allow her to. “That’s okay.” 

“Right. Now, just one last question: What is your purpose?”

“To capture the terrorist organization known as the Crystal Gems and reactivate the passive cluster residing in planet Earth,” Rose recited almost automatically. She didn’t fully understand what she had just said. The abrupt realization of her purpose gave rise to many questions, questions like, why? Why to a lot of things. 

The peridot’s lips curled ever so slightly before the shorter gem turned away. “Capture or destroy,” she corrected as she began fiddling through another menu on her screen. “But that’s a minor detail. It seems that your production was a success. Congratulations, you pass.”

“But why?” Rose blurted out, regretting it instantly. 

“Wha — Huh?” The peridot stopped typing. She glanced away from her screen and looked sidelong at Rose, her brows furrowed. “What do you mean?”

“I-I mean, why do I need to destroy them? The Crystal Gems.”

The peridot stared at her for a moment, and then snorted. “You don’t need to know that. All you need to know is your mission, and all you need to do is complete that mission.”

Before the peridot could turn back to her screen, Rose’s arm stretched towards her, snapping the table’s restraints in the process and letting them crash to the ground. She grabbed the peridot’s shoulder before the smaller gem could shrink away and gripped lightly.

“Please tell me,” she asserted. “I’m so curious about… everything! Who are the Crystal Gems? Why am I supposed to capture them? Why —.”

The peridot squirmed in her grip. “O-Ow ow ow!” 

“W-Why me? I don’t even know what’s happening. Why —”

“Get your hand off of me!” The peridot shrieked. “Let go!”

“Oh!” Rose tucked her arms in towards her chest. “I’m sorry! I didn’t… I’m sorry.” She looked around, flustered, and realized that the robonoids that were peacefully floating around them before were now advancing on Rose. Their pale green exterior began glowing red and each of them had their hatches drawn, exposing little weapons of varying utility. 

“Abort!” The peridot waved them off and they dispersed as quickly as they had gone into formation. She then rubbed her shoulder and winced. It was quickly becoming discolored. She sighed raggedly as one of her metal arms folded open and morphed into a strange instrument with a long syringed tip. Rose looked away as the peridot unceremoniously injected herself with it. There was silence, and then another sigh. When Rose opened her eyes again, the peridot’s shoulder had reverted back to its light-greenish hue, albeit with a noticeable puncture wound. She rotated her shoulder stiffly before putting her tool away. Once her limb was done morphing back, she turned and scowled at Rose. “What was that all about?!” 

Rose drew back from the outburst and hugged herself. “I-I didn’t know I was that strong! Are you going to be alright?”

“Temporarily. I’ll need to take some time out of my very busy schedule to properly recover later. But you, you’re supposed to be in full control of your power output by now. I’ll exclude this little mishap from the report, but you’ll need to be trained for sure.”

Rose looked down, chastised. She fumbled with her hands and tried mimicking the peridot by rubbing her own arm. It didn’t feel any better. She shifted so that a wave of her dense hair spilled down and covered her face. She didn’t want to be seen.

The peridot growled. “Fine! I’ll tell you, so calm down and stop sulking.”

Rose peeked at the other gem through her bangs. “What are you going to tell me?”

The peridot muttered something to herself as she combed back some stray hairs. “I’m going to tell you about the Crystal Gems!” she said through gritted teeth. “They’re wanted captured or shattered for the highest level of treason: Grey 7.”

“W-What did they do?” Rose said, curiosity gradually getting the better of her guilt. 

“They…” The peridot swallowed hard. “They shattered one of the Diamonds.”

Rose gasped. “How awful!” She closed her eyes and let her chin sink down to her chest, the full weight of her mission settling on her. 

The peridot nodded slowly. “Yes, just awful. And according to recent intel, they seem to be holding several of our agents hostage as well.”

“Oh no,” Rose moaned.

“Which brings us to why you were produced and given this mission. The Diamonds, in all their wisdom, held a summit and came to the conclusion that the mission would be most suited to a gem such as yourself.” 

Rose blinked a few times. “That… That’s it? That’s why?”

“The Diamonds wanted you and that’s all that matters,” the peridot answered sternly, but then added in a softer tone, “But does it really matter why?”

The peridot touched a symbol at the edge of her screen. The restraints binding the rest of Rose’s limbs were released. Rose hesitated to step off until the peridot’s fingers wrapped around her arm and gently pulled her onto the ground. 

“You were chosen to save the agents that were captured by the Crystal Gems,” the peridot said as she released Rose and stared up at her with weary eyes. “You were also chosen to avenge Pink Diamond. And most importantly, you were chosen to restore order to the gem expansion and to our universe. That’s what the Diamonds expect of you, and so that’s what you’ll do.” The peridot then broke her stern expression, smiled haughtily and crossed her arms. “It’s also what I made you for, so I expect —” 

“O-Okay!” With newfound resolve and without restraints, Rose puffed her chest out, bumping the peridot aside. “I’m going to do it! I’m going to stop those Crystal Gems from hurting gemkind, avenge Pink Diamond, and save the universe!”

“Yes, well,” the peridot began through gritted teeth as she got up, readjusted her visor and dusted herself. “The first step to achieving that goal is to modify your appearance and form some melded covers. So why don’t you go ahead and do that? I mean, I can’t just present you to Yellow Diamond naked — despite how fine of a specimen you turned out to be.”

Rose looked down at herself and then at the peridot and her appearance modifications. “Oh! Yes, okay. Um... What should I wear?” 

“I...” The peridot’s mouth worked for a moment silently. And then she frowned. “I’m actually not quite sure.”

Rose gave her a bewildered look. “I thought you knew everything.”

The peridot coughed as her face grimaced into something between a smile and a frown. “Uh, no. Just most things. Wait, was that sarcasm?”

Rose tilted her head. “What’s that?”

“Right.” The peridot shook her head. “Look, it’s been several millennia since the last rose quartz was produced, and I don’t remember there being any information regarding a rose quartz’s uniform in the archives. I’d have to sift through them again to be sure, but at another time. I suppose… for now just wear something appropriate of a quartz soldier?” The peridot shrugged.

Not knowing what to wear or what would be appropriate for a quartz soldier such as herself, Rose decided it best to just replicate the pattern worn by the peridot in front of her. 

She closed her eyes on instinct and concentrated on her gem. Pure light poured out of it immediately and washed over her naked form. She imagined herself in the peridot’s decorations, but without the metal limbs and visor, and fitted to accommodate her larger frame. Her thoughts compelled the sheet of light surrounding her to materialize into fabric. The elastic material then spiraled up her legs, tightening and conforming to the curves of her hips and waist. It then covered her back and split over her shoulders and onto her chest, crossing into the shape of a diamond and leaving the bright pink gem in the middle of her chest exposed. 

Rose opened her eyes to the peridot’s scrutinizing gaze. She hummed while looking Rose over. “Oh good, uniformity. That’s fine too. But, well, this modification looks a bit off on you. Is it the color? Yes, green doesn’t suit you at all. Try… pink.”

“Does the color really matter?” Rose asked.

“Uniform color does in fact matter,” the peridot scoffed. “Yellow Diamond is appreciative of even the most superficial details. ‘Function and form’ _is_ part of her doctrine, after all. But something’s still missing.” A finger floated up to her mouth and she chewed on it for a moment as she mulled over Rose’s new appearance. But soon realization dawned on her and she spit the finger out. “Oh!” The peridot snapped her fingers. “How could I forget? The cape! All high ranking quartz soldiers are to don a cape that ends just four point seventy-two standard gem units below the waist. That should be around… here,” she indicated right above Rose’s tush.

Rose nodded and closed her eyes as she willed the light in her gem to activate again. The colors of her garments shifted from one hue to the next until they settled on pink. Then a burst of light swirled out of her gem and nestled around her neck. When the light had fully manifested and Rose opened her eyes, a sleek cape had settled upon her shoulders.

The peridot hummed appreciatively. “Presentable.”

Rose smiled down at her modified appearance and did a clumsy twirl to show off. She giggled when the peridot rolled her eyes and clapped. Most of her outfit was black: black boots, black tights, black collar, even a black cape. But the pink top and the yellow diamond-shaped intersection at its crest gave her a flare of color. Rose liked this uniform. She found comfort in its plain blackness; it reminded her of her hole. She hoped she wouldn’t have to change it again.

Suddenly, an ear-numbing noise vibrated along the kindergarten walls. It grew louder as a colossal shadow enveloped the entirety of the kindergarten. 

Rose and the peridot looked up to see a large ship zooming by above the mouth of the canyon. Powerful winds followed it, blowing through the kindergarten and pushing Rose and the peridot off balance. The ship slowed down as it passed overhead and disappeared behind a cliff side. Rose could hear it land nearby.

“Right on schedule,” the peridot said loudly as she fixed her hair. “Well then, let’s proceed.”

Rose spat some strands of hair out of her mouth. “What was that?!” she yelped, looking around frantically. “Was it bad?”

“Of course not!” The peridot said as she fiddled with her screen once again. A beep signaled the idle robonoids to zoom away towards the ship’s direction. The column of lights hidden around the kindergarten shut off one by one after the peridot as she walked, and skipped a bit, after her droids. “That’s our means of transportation back to Homeworld,” she yelled over her shoulder. “Come on! Best not to keep Yellow Diamond waiting.”

Rose hesitated and looked back at the hole she had crawled out of just an hour or two ago. She couldn’t see it anymore; it had been swallowed by the void space. She shut her eyes hard and ran after the peridot as the lights dimmed around her.


	2. Chapter 2

Rose caught up to the peridot in just a few powerful strides. At the very edge of the kindergarten in the distance she could see a massive elevated platform, and on top of the platform rested the ship from before. It was sleek and dark, almost invisible against the backdrop of space. Once they got closer, Rose realized that the outer plating was reflective. She was tempted to ask questions about the ship, about its shiny exterior, and why it was so large, and who was inside of it, and — anything to get her mind off of her mission and make her less nervous. But the peridot seemed to be focused on other things. She was mumbling to herself, something along the lines of, “Why yes, my Diamond. I would be honored. Oh, what’s that? Nobility? Me, an exception? How could I refuse!” Rose fixed her eyes forward on the landing pad as the peridot began giggling.

The closer they got to the ship and the larger it grew in her eyes, the smaller Rose felt. The burst of confidence from before was fizzling down fast, leaving a cold uncertainty in its absence. Rose hugged herself and rubbed her arms together. Strange; a quartz soldier of her caliber wasn’t supposed to feel cold, and yet she was shivering.

They walked in relative silence until the peridot finally snapped back to reality. She cleared her throat as she checked the time on her display. “We could build the most intricate kindergarten ever devised for a single cell on this floating rock, but we can’t spare the resources for one warp pad?” she grumbled. “Come on, Rose Quartz. Let’s accelerate our pace. I’m sure that Yellow Diamond is excited to finally meet you.” Her metal feet kicked up dust as she began taking wider steps. 

“O-Okay,” Rose said. She began walking normally to match the peridot. 

When they reached the base of the landing pad the peridot held her hand up, stopping Rose in front of the tall structure. Rose shuffled restlessly as the peridot brought up her display again and quickly poked through several menus. A cheerful blip signaled for the ground they were standing on to begin levitating. Dust blew out from unseen crevices as the hidden elevator rose slowly. Another rapid series of blips ringing from the peridot’s display as she poked at it impatiently caused the elevator to speed up and shoot into the sky. Rose crouched on instinct, unready for the abrupt movement. The peridot snickered at her.

“Nervous?”

Rose tried to smile and nodded. 

“Well there’s nothing to be concerned about, at least not yet,” the peridot said as they became level with the landing pad and the ship came into view behind her. “You just listen to everything I say until I present you to Yellow Diamond. Then you can get nervous.” The peridot snickered again.

Rose’s half-smile flattened. 

The peridot caught her expression fall and sighed. She looked back at the ship and motioned her palm at them before turning back to Rose. “You’re far more timid and impressionable than I had calculated,” she said, shaking her head and crossing her arms. “As I said, there’s nothing to worry about yet. You just have to listen to me and everything will be fine.”

“But —”

“Just focus on completing the mission. I’ll lead you through it, at least until you begin the first operation and by then you’ll be ready. Understood?” 

Rose leaned closer to the peridot. “Are… are you going to leave after I meet Yellow Diamond?”

The peridot scratched the side of her head, leaving dark streaks through her yellow hair. “Perhaps. But I’ll make an appeal if you need further assistance from me. I’m sure that Yellow Diamond would be willing to listen, considering I just completed my own mission and have yet to be assigned a new one.”

“Okay,” Rose sighed with relief.

“Good. Now come on, they’re waiting.” The peridot grabbed Rose’s arm and led her off the elevator and towards the ship. Rose put her other hand over the peridot’s thin fingers and clutched them. She made sure not to squeeze too hard and let herself be dragged along. The fingers were cold and caked with dry dirt, but she hoped she wouldn’t have to let go anytime soon.

The ship was even larger than Rose had anticipated. With each step it seemed to grow outward, likely a visual trick of the mirrored outer plating as well as her perspective. As they approached, a panel of the ship slid open with a sharp hiss and extended down into a long bridge. There was a dull thud as it connected with the landing pad. 

They were just a few steps from the bridge when the peridot suddenly let go of Rose and paused mid-step. Rose grasped at empty space before stopping as well. She looked back at the peridot in confusion, and her confusion turned to worry when she saw the other gem’s knitted brows and wide, alert eyes. The peridot was staring dead ahead at the ship’s open door. Rose whipped her head back and squinted at the entrance. 

A dark figure stood at the ship’s mouth. Bright lights blinked constantly behind the figure, making it difficult to discern any of its features — save for its eyes, which were sharp and unblinking. Also its height. It was large, possibly another quartz soldier like Rose. Rose’s feet shifted as she grew nervous and excited.

The figure began walking down the bridge towards them. Its heavy steps echoed against the metal runway.

The peridot took a step back, and then another. “Oh Diamonds,” she whispered. “Why her? I requested the Earthen jasper, didn’t I?” Her shoulders tensed and she shrunk forward, for once breaking her pristine posture. 

“It’s okay. I think it’s another quartz soldier,” Rose whispered loudly. “She’s like me!”

“She’s nothing like you!” the peridot hissed back. “This gem is one of Blue Diamond’s personal guards and a high-ranking officer.”

“Wow!” Rose said in awe.

“No! She’s a… a bad gem, notorious for many reasons. I mean, just look at her cape! It’s only covering one shoulder, and it’s much lower than the Quartz Soldier Uniform Code standard. It’s practically dragging behind her feet! No, this gem is nothing like you. In fact, it would be best if we didn’t —”

“Have you already briefed her?” the quartz soldier rasped as she stopped in front of Rose and the peridot and crossed her arms.

The peridot jumped. “Eep! I-I mean, yes,” her voice cracked. “She’s finally ready!” 

The quartz soldier’s eyes narrowed. “Let’s hope she is, for your sake.”

Rose heard the peridot gulp. She gulped too.

The quartz soldier shoved past the peridot and stepped in front of Rose. She was almost as tall as Rose was and their height was similar enough for them to be standing face to face. Rose could feel her legs tremble as the other quartz’s unblinking eyes bore into her own eyes. Then the quartz’s gaze dropped slowly, thoroughly examining the rest of Rose’s form. Through squinted eyes, Rose did the same to her. 

Her attention was first drawn to the other quartz’s eyes. They were so narrow that the whites were nearly hidden underneath her thick eyelashes, yet her dark irises distinguished themselves as they flicked around Rose’s form. By contrast, the gem’s soft features stood out next. Despite her height and burly form, she had rounded cheeks and full lips, which remained pursed. Pale hair hung wildly around her purple face like thorns. The silver cape that the peridot had criticized hung off of the quartz soldier’s left shoulder. It wasn’t nearly long enough to drag on the floor but did obscure the entire left half of her body. Only bits of her blue uniform underneath remained exposed. 

Her gem was located on her left breast and was hidden beneath her uniform and partially concealed by the cape. Rose couldn’t help but notice that the gem’s silhouette had a strange bulky shape to it, a shape that she couldn’t quite define. It might’ve just been the clothes warping the shape of the cut, but the gem looked solid underneath. Rose was able to catch a magenta glimmer from an exposed tip encased in... what looked to be metal? The metal left Rose wondering, but she was nonetheless able to identify the gem as an amethyst.

“What is your purpose, Rose Quartz?” the amethyst suddenly barked. 

“H-Huh?” Rose’s head jerked up and her eyes once again met the glare of the amethyst. “Oh! To capture the Crystal Gems and reactivate the passive cluster residing in planet Earth,” she recited.

The amethyst offered a thin smile. Rose smiled back crookedly. “Good,” the amethyst grunted. “Come inside and we’ll get you caught up. Then we can start on your training.” The amethyst’s smile broadened, straining her face. “We’re going to have lots of fun.” With that, she about-faced, her hair whipping Rose on the cheek, and began walking back up the bridge into the brightly lit ship. “Hurry up, soldier! You too, peridot!” she barked as she disappeared past the entrance to the fuselage.

Rose stood there despite the order and watched her go, hesitant to follow an unfamiliar gem. But she willed herself to get over the bridge one shaky step at a time, curious and motivated by the prospect of fun. 

Her growing excitement was halted when she felt a light tug on her cape. Before she turned around, the peridot appeared next to her and whispered hastily as she hurried by, “After you’ve been briefed, meet with me in the lab. Do not go to your training before you see me.”

Rose wanted to ask her why, but the peridot had already zoomed by and disappeared into the ship before she could decide whether to stop her or not. Rose shook her head. She remembered what the peridot had said before, to trust her and follow the mission. With that in mind, she braced herself and stomped up the bridge after the little green gem.


	3. Chapter 3

The briefing was a simple affair. A petite ruby had greeted her at the bridge and gave her the rundown on her targets. With the assistance of a holo presentation, the Ruby explained to Rose that she was to subdue a highly trained team of renegade gems consisting of a Pearl, a defective Amethyst, a permafusion Garnet, a ballistic peridot, and an unidentified gem. After sharing a long and sweaty handshake with the Ruby, Rose was then directed to the training facility; but she instead made a detour towards the engineering bay, just as her peridot had told her to do. The large double doors of the bay slid up and aside for her as she stepped into their rendezvous point. 

The doors shut behind her and she was left in the darkness. “Peridot?” Rose called. “Where are you? I can’t see anything.” There was no reply. It was so very quiet, save for the low humming of the ship’s engine and the occasional beep that came echoing from somewhere deep within the facility. Her eyes were slow to adjust but she could see vague outlines of things if she just squinted. The only sources of light in the room were the dim holograms far in the distance and the blinking signals on some of the inactive mechanisms. The place felt huge.

There was no sign of her peridot, not even a speck of green. Rose did however spot a nearby hover panel. It was little more than a thin sheet of metal floating precariously off the edge of the entrance lobby platform. Without any other clear way to progress, Rose stepped onto it, hoping it would take her to where her peridot was waiting for her. It didn’t move at first and actually sunk a couple meters. Rose crouched, worried that its weight manipulators would fail her and she would be dropped into the jungle of wires and machinery below. After a brief moment though, the panel lit up and began steadily gliding forward. Still wary of its stability, Rose stumbled onto her knees and clung to the sides of the panel for the duration of the ride.

The hover panel gave her a brief tour of the engineering bay. With the meager light it shined, Rose was able to see that there were intricate devices all around, jutting from walls and floating off panels much like the one she knelt on. They had been left idle in strange positions, as if frozen mid-function. There were also several vacant work stations. Only a few of them remained somewhat occupied, with unfinished projects sitting inside of them. An eerie stillness filled the otherwise empty place. 

Rose shuddered. It looked as if the whole place had been bustling just moments before her arrival. She wondered what could have caused such an abrupt shut down and even considered investigating. But priorities first: she had to find her peridot.

In the darkness ahead, partially obscured by unmoving contraptions and distorted by obstructive holograms, Rose could make out a very faint yellow glow coming from a dome-like structure. She immediately jumped off of the hover panel towards it, aiming her descent so that she fell through gaps in the layers of machinery. She landed hard on the bottom-most level and rolled forward to maintain her momentum. A maze of storage units and half-built appliances blocked her way. She dodged through them and climbed over dead ends until she came to a wide passage, which led right up to the dome. 

The dome was much smaller than it looked from the hover panel. Rose wondered if it could even accommodate her, seeing as how the entrance was nearly a head shorter than she was. A neon green screen outside of it read ‘QUARTERS’, and standing in the light it cast was a familiar gem.

Rose couldn’t tell if the gem’s natural color was green or if she was simply being illuminated by the screen’s light. It was hard to make out her features too, but the large, shapely head between her narrow shoulders and the metal limbs were enough to for Rose to deduce that she was a peridot.

The peridot seemed to be busy. Her fingers were fishing around the compartment of a nearby robonoid. When they came out, a trail of powdery crystalline material fell from them, reflecting in the artificial light. She sprinkled whatever it was she was pinching into the bulbous base of an otherwise thin cylindrical device that she held in her other fingers.

When she was done doing whatever it was she was doing, Rose decided to make her entrance. “Peridot!” she chirped as she sprinted up to the shorter gem and grabbed her by the arm.

“Wha, huh?” The peridot whipped around and instantly cringed away from Rose. “What’re you — unhand me, you clod!” She began thrashing violently against Rose. The crystal dust in the device she held spilled onto the floor around them.

Rose let go of her and jumped back. Something wasn’t right. It was the peridot’s voice; it sounded lower pitched and huskier than she remembered. And now that Rose was closer, she realized that the peridot had on different appearance modifiers than before, with a similar uniform but exposed midriff. Her hair was wrong too. It was as if the peridot had worn it backwards; the rear of it was flat while her bangs jutted far past her forehead in an angular pomp. And where did the pronounced wrinkles under her eyes go? This… this wasn’t right. This wasn’t her peridot. 

“Oh, um, uh!” Rose sputtered, realizing her mistake. “W-Wrong gem!”

“Clearly!” the stranger barked over her shoulder as she turned away from Rose. “Ugh! Wasted some of the agent because of you.” Several of her fingers dug into the open robonoid beside her again and brought out more of the crystal grit. Her fingers trembled as she struggled to pack all of them into the device’s tiny chamber. She cursed when a single grain fell to the floor. Once she was able to seal the latch, she quickly brought the end of the stem to her lips, and sucked hard. The device lit up, casting a harsh yellow light against her face. She inhaled deeply before popping her lips off and aiming them at Rose. 

Rose watched curiously as the peridot puckered her lips up at her, and soon her vision was assaulted by yellow fumes. She got startled and held her breathe but still caught an initial whiff of the unpleasant stuff. It smelled like burnt oil. When the smoke cleared, the peridot was staring up at her, but not really at her. Her eyes were cloudy. “What are you still doing here?” she slurred. “Get away from me.”

“Don’t blow smoke at our guest.” Another peridot appeared from inside of the building, to Rose’s relief. This one wore a long lab coat. Her hands were stuffed far into the baggy pockets on the sides. “Apologies, err… quartz soldier, for this peridot’s rudeness as well as her shameful display. And further apologies for our lack of greeting. We weren’t informed that you’d be visiting.” 

“If you didn’t bring an assignment, then get lost!” the smoking peridot garbled, her balance becoming unsteady. She had to lean against the other peridot for support.

The peridot in the lab coat laughed it off. “What she meant was, what brings you to our corner of the engineering bay?”

Rose sidestepped away from the tipsier of the two strangers. She then mumbled, “I-I’m looking for a peridot,” before cringing inwardly at herself at the dumbness of what she just said.

She was too slow to elaborate however when the coated peridot’s eyes widened and a quiet gasp escaped her widening smile. “Well, look no further!” the peridot squealed as she quickly pulled up the sleeve of her arm and brought up a small screen. “As you can see here,” she began, indicating with a finger, "I am a peridot produced in the latter cycle of the second generation. That means that I am more technologically gifted and versatile than most other peridots. I’ve held positions in robotics, programming, architectural, and even kindergartening! I specialize in rubies mostly, but —”

“Hey!” the smoking peridot snapped. She took another drag and coughed into the other peridot’s face. “I saw her,” _cough_ , “first. If she has an assignment, then,” _cough_ , “it’s mine!”

The peridot in the lab coat rolled her eyes. “The assignment should go to the most qualified candidate.”

Another string of coughs and a gasp. “That certainly wouldn’t be you.”

“It most certainly would be me!”

“N-No!” Rose shouted. “I’m looking for _my_ peridot. She’s different from you two.”

“Ah.” The peridot in the lab coat sighed but continued to smile at Rose. “So you’ve already got one in mind. Good for her. Well then, could you provide some descriptors so that I can assist you in locating and identifying _your_ peridot?”

“She…” Rose bit her lip. “She looks like you, but her uniform is different. It looks like mine except green.”

“…Right. Perhaps she’s inside of the quarters.” The peridot in the lab coat shrugged her unsteady companion off of her and led her onto the wall. She then motioned for Rose to follow her into the dome. Rose ducked through the little doorway and into a round room, dimly lit by floating screens with rows upon rows of numbers moving through them. She stood silently and uncomfortably as the peridot fiddled with the smaller screen on her arm. She shuffled in place for a while, waiting for something to happen, when she realized that the ceiling was getting further and further away. The room seemed to be expanding. Rose was eventually able to stand tall and comfortably.

“Thank you for making the room bigger,” Rose said.

“Huh? Oh, hah, no. We’re on an elevator, going down.”

“Oh.” Rose blushed. She tried changing topics. “What was that thing the other peridot was using? She put it in her mouth and then smoke came out!”

The peridot cleared her throat. “That garbage is the moderated version of the corrupting agent used in the previous war. Surely you’ve heard about it?”

“Um, no. Why does smoke come out? And why did it smell so bad? Was it broken?”

“That’s... just how the device functions. You put the agent into the receptor at the base, where it sublimates into a gaseous state, allowing a gem to inhale the agent through a filter. Upon successful inhalation, the gem achieves a temporary ‘low.’ The effects are more difficult to explain.” 

“Does it feel good?”

The peridot’s mouth opened. She looked up at Rose and snorted before looking away. “My, you are an unusually inquisitive quartz. But I don’t dislike that. I’ll try to put this in terms that you can understand. The agent dulls the gem, turns you into a clod. But some gems want that. Especially peridots. That way, they won’t have to think so much when there’s really nothing to think about.” She shrugged. “We can’t help but think, you know.”

Rose didn’t understand but she nodded anyways.

When the elevator stopped, Rose followed the peridot through a short but spacious passage. At the end of it was a large metal door protruding from the wall. It slid aside when they approached, allowing yellow smoke to ooze into the passage from the other side. It smelled just as foul as the agent from before. Rose’s nose wrinkled, but she nonetheless followed the peridot past the door. They were only a few steps into the room beyond when Rose stomped to a halt. 

“What?” the peridot asked. “Do you see her?”

Rose didn’t hear her; the noise in the room was too loud. That and there were far too many other gems that demanded her attention. 

A thick yellow fog permeated every corner of the room. Rose was at first startled by the dark silhouettes moving through it. It was difficult to make out any of their finer features, but judging from their large, shapely heads and the occasional glint of a visor or metal limb, Rose was sure that they were other peridots. She tried going into the fog to get a closer look and made it several steps in when it became too thick and harsh for her unseasoned form to handle. The fog stung at her eyes and burned through her lungs even when she held her breath. She could feel her gem working to adapt to the strange environment, but it wasn’t fast enough. An itchy feeling swelled in her chest and ballooned up to her throat until she could no longer contain it. When she sneezed the patch of fog in front of her dissipated, revealing the spit-riddled face of an alarmed peridot. 

Rose tried to make out the peridot’s face through her watery eyes. “Are… are you my peridot?” she managed to wheeze in the middle of slurping up her mucus.

“Am I what?” The peridot asked. She took off her slimy visor, giving Rose a better look at her face. She didn’t look familiar.

“U-Um, never mind.” Rose smiled sheepishly down at the confused peridot as the fog between them condensed once again. She tried moving on but her elbow sunk into something soft and fuzzy.

“Hey!” another peridot squeaked from under her. “Watch it you… you… By the Diamonds, what _are_ you?”

“S-Sorry!” Rose coughed as she dodged around this peridot’s massive clump of hair, now with a dent in it the shape of her arm. 

She managed to walk a bit further without much incident when her lungs stopped hurting and her eyes began to adjust to the searing fog and the strange lighting of the place. She blinked comfortably a few times and sighed with relief at her gem’s adaptable functions. Now that her eyes had cleared up, she was able to see just how many peridots were moving around her in the fog. She was practically surrounded by them, all varying in shapes and sizes. Some of them shot curious glances her way, and a few of them tried brushing close to her. One of them even pinched her. Rose let her hair fall over her face as she held herself. She hoped they couldn’t see her blush.

The peridots appeared and vanished so quickly that Rose could barely make out any of their features. But as she continued wandering around in the fog, she was able to catch glimpses of what they were up to — and what they were up to fascinated her. 

The peridots were talking and moving in ways that Rose didn’t understand. The sounds they made and the way they waltzed along the floor, close to each other, partnered and in groups, were… She searched her gem for an appropriate descriptor but could not find any. She made a note to ask her peridot about all of this later.

There were other less active peridots in the room as well that Rose found interesting. A couple lay face down on a couch as it hovered aimlessly around the room, as unresponsive as the apparatuses outside. Others sat around and on top of inactive workplaces, puffing the agent in between arguments. Surprisingly, only a few of the peridots she spotted were using the holo-devices built into their metal arms, and none of them operated alone. They were always with or around another peridot.

“Wow,” Rose whispered. All she knew before was her mission, and now there were so many questions. Questions for her missing peridot. She redoubled her efforts. 

But with so many of the little green gems all around her, Rose wondered how she would ever distinguish hers from the crowd. She remembered her peridot having a flared posture and slight wrinkles under her eyes. She also often had her holo-display up. That was all she had to go off of. That… didn’t seem like it would be enough. Luckily though, her aimless wandering had brought her to the far end of the room where there was much more space. As the crowd shifted around her, Rose caught a glimpse of a hologram at the center of a clearing. Peridots moved aside for her as she pushed towards it. The further she went, the thinner the fog became, and the more eyes she drew.

Only a few peridots stood around the hologram, which was so large that it spanned from the table it was projected from nearly to the ceiling of the room. It displayed a solid spherical structure with various rings and satellites orbiting it. The image was strangely familiar to Rose and made her feel wistful, although she had never seen anything like it before. But the feeling didn’t last long. The image slowly changed. The outer crust of the sphere crumbled and disintegrated, revealing a mostly empty core beneath it. Only a tiny ember flickered at its center. It stayed like that for a moment before, suddenly, the image caved into itself until all that was left of the visual was a grid. The peridots’ expressions turned grim.

“Ahem!” Rose whipped around to see the peridot in the lab coat standing beside her again. She seemed to have followed her through the fog. Her hair was a little messier than before and her visor was lopsided. Rose straightened it for her and fixed the wrinkle on her collar. 

“Before I leave you,” the peridot huffed, brushing Rose’s hand away, “why don’t I announce your arrival? It can be difficult trying to gather a gem’s attention in here, although that doesn’t seem to be much of a problem for you.” The peridot glanced behind her shoulder, prompting Rose to do the same. Behind them, a dark moving mass of peridots watched them through the fog.

Rose turned back around and gulped. “Okay.”

“Excellent. Hopefully this will expedite your search.” The peridot chewed her lip for a moment then pointed at Rose. “This is rather embarrassing, but could you remind me what sort of quartz you are? It’s been decades since I’ve browsed the infantry catalogues.” 

“I’m Rose quartz.”

“You’re… what?” 

“I’m —”

“You’re —”

“Rose quartz.”

The peridot shook her head. She looked at Rose and shook her head again. Her fingers went to the sides of her head and kneaded her temples. “You’re… _YOU’RE_ Rose Quartz?!” 

Several shushes hissed from behind them and the room soon went quiet. Rose looked around as the fog dissipated and saw that all eyes were on her. The peridots reminded her of all the machinery that she passed by in the engineering bay, frozen mid-activity in her presence.

The silence lingered on. The only sound came from the peridot in the lab coat. Her metal feet clunked against the floor as she backed into the crowd. Rose considered following her and asking her what was happening, what the problem was; but the look on her face, of plain horror and something else, something hostile, shocked Rose to a standstill.

Just as soon as the peridot disappeared into the crowd, another series of footsteps echoed around the room, these much softer. Rose followed the sound and saw that one of the peridots that stood around the spherical hologram had left her place at the table and was walking in her direction. The crowd parted for her as she ambled forward, her arms behind her back. Rose slowly shuffled forward, trying not to look too desperate, and met her halfway. 

They stopped in front of each other. Rose had trouble meeting the peridot’s eyes. One of the peridot’s brows twitched. Her fingers floated up and brushed all the hair out of Rose’s face. 

Rose blinked hard, panicked, and spoke first. “G-Greetings! I’m R-Rose Quartz.” She fumbled a salute and realized she was trembling. “I’m looking for a p-peridot. B-But not just a-any peridot! My peridot looks —”

“Like me?” the gem interrupted, her fingers coming to idle around her crossed arms.

“Um, yes. B-But… but no,” Rose scratched her neck and laughed a little. Her cheeks felt hot. “I-Im sorry.”

The peridot sighed. “It’s me, Rose Quartz.”

Rose blinked and gave the peridot in front of her another onceover. “No, I don’t think… my peridot was —”

“Covered in dirt and oil the last time you saw her. She has since boarded the ship, gotten a polish, and has been waiting much too long in the engineering bay for you to show up.” The peridot looked down at her wrist as a transparent screen lit up in front of her. The wrinkles around her eyes became visible. “It says here that your briefing was completed nearly an hour ago. What’ve you been doi —”

“Peridot!” Rose wrapped both her hands around as many metal fingers as she could catch out of the air. She looked through her peridot’s shinny visor at her squinting green eyes and the bags under them, and a wave of relief washed over her. An involuntary squeak escaped her lips. She bit them shut.

Her peridot snorted and smiled a little despite herself. She opened her mouth and looked like she was about to say something, but she instead shook her head. Then she about-faced and began dragging Rose by the arm with her free fingers towards the adjacent corridor behind the table with the hologram. 

“Come on,” she said softly so that only Rose could hear. “We need to speak in private.”

Rose followed readily with a bounce in her step, but not too quickly. She liked the feeling of being tugged along.

Her little moment of triumph and respite was broken however when she heard the whispering behind her.

“So _that’s_ a rose quartz.”

“They cut my supply and halted my research for… for that?”

“I hope she was worth it.”

“She has to be worth it. Otherwise,” a bitter laugh, “what was it all for?”

“Who really knows? The Diamonds have been lax in their judgment as of late.”

“Shh! You can’t say that out loud.”

“You know, despite everything, I don’t envy her. Not in the least.”

“I pity her.”

“Who? The Rose Quartz?”

“Who do you think?”

Rose could feel their eyes bore into the back of her head. Her peridot didn’t seem to notice.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> changed the below passage from chapter 1 slightly for reasons.
> 
>  
> 
> “Right.” The peridot shook her head. “Look, it’s been several millennia since the last rose quartz was produced, and I don’t remember there being any information regarding a rose quartz’s uniform in the archives. I’d have to sift through them again to be sure, but at another time. I suppose… for now just wear something appropriate of a quartz soldier?” The peridot shrugged.
> 
> “Right.” The peridot shook her head. “Look, it’s been several millennia since the last rose quartz was produced, and I… I don’t remember what she used to wear. I’d have to sift through the archives to find out, but at another time. I suppose, for now just wear something appropriate of a quartz soldier.” The peridot shrugged.


End file.
